white and black
by nanrea
Summary: After the events of D-Stabilized, Valerie's got a lot of thinking to do. What, exactly, is the connection between Phantom, Danielle, and the Wisconsin Ghost and why did she have to get dragged into this mess? And what, exactly, is she going to do about it?
1. Chapter 1

It was lucky that in her shock, Valerie remained frozen behind the fallen pillar until after Vlad, (both Vlads? the single Vlad?) had long since left. Lucky for whom, Valerie couldn't decide, as she stumbled up and away for enough room to activate her jetboard. She knew the Wisconsin Ghost was powerful, and if he was that recovered from Danielle's massive assault already . . . Valerie wasn't the type of girl to give much forethought to her attacks, and she candidly admitted to herself that she probably talked a bigger game than she was able to play, but she didn't think she'd stand much of a chance against Vlad by herself and.

Holy shit. The realization hit her at the same time as the cold night air. The mayor was a ghost. Or. She'd been close enough to him to know that he was able to pull off still living human. Half ghost. Like Danielle. That was one connection made in this farce. But how did Phantom play into all of this.

She drifted along through the night sky, thinking about the elusive ghost. The data Vlad had provided on Danielle included her full ectosignature and the factoid that she was capable of masking it. How, he hadn't explained, but Valerie surmised that her human form was all that was necessary to hide it. Certainly her sensors hadn't picked up on the kid until Valerie had been practically on top of her, scanners set to the highest sensitivity. If Vlad hadn't given Valerie a general location to within a few blocks, and she hadn't scouted down that particular alleyway at that particular time, there was no way she would ever have managed to locate the younger girl. Scanning for her now revealed that unless she'd flown fast enough to reach the next state in the hour since they'd parted, then she had already reverted back to human.

And Phantom . . .

Valerie had always assumed the ghost boy had to have some kind of hiding place within Amity itself, the way he could disappear at the drop of a hat. But now . . .

If Danielle was half human, it stood to reason that her "cousin" also might share that affliction. They certainly looked similar enough that Valerie couldn't even question whether or not they were related: if they hadn't claimed being cousins she would have guessed siblings or . . . clones or something, it was seriously uncanny.

Valerie dropped down to the roof of her apartment building, dismissing her suit with a thought and trotting over to the door to the stairs on autopilot. The duct tape over the automatic locks was still in place, and she slipped into the stairwell.

Sneaking into the apartment was a lot easier when her dad was on nights. Sneaking in was in fact something of a misnomer when her dad was working nights. She locked the apartment door behind her and sighed, leaning back against it in sudden exhaustion. She wished she could talk about this with him. If her dad was less than understanding about the ghost hunting, he had at least started to loosen up about it after he'd realised there was no getting this ghost hunting suit away from her like he took the first one. Not that he had a choice.

Valerie sighed as she entered her room, examining the face featured prominently on her motivation wall. Phantom. The lynchpin in this entire mess, she was positive. She'd seen the Wisconsin Ghost- VLAD- and Phantom interact often enough to know that there was absolutely no love lost between them, and maybe it was this half ghost bullshit that lay at the center of it all.

She flopped down on her bed, burying her face in her pillow before rolling over and squinting at the smirking face of her number one target. There had always been something frustratingly familiar about Phantom, some name always at the tip of her tongue. Something about him rubbed her the wrong way, and it was more than just his destroying her father's career and reputation. It was that he was so frustratingly familiar.

She glowered at the wall, thinking back to earlier in the evening. When she had first spotted Danielle, her target had been in human form. She'd been too far away for Valerie to get a good look at her eyes, but she was certain the girl's hair had been dark, probably black. Standing back up with a jerk, she reached over to the nearest picture of Phantom and tore it off the wall. Pulling out her desk chair, she slumped down and fumbled around for a black pen. If Danielle's hair went from black to white, then Phantom . . .

Picking up a black marker, she began furiously scribbling over the ghost's white hair, turning it black. Once she was done she sat back, stunned.

Without a doubt, that was Danny Fenton grinning cockily from the photo in front of her.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Language.

Danny Phantom was Danny Fenton.

 _Danny Phantom was Danny Fenton._

FUUUUUUUCK.

Valerie was still awake when her dad got home at six the next morning, the turmoil of this revelation making her too nauseous to sleep.

 _Look,_ the logical part of her mind tried to say. _A photo colored in with magic marker does not definitive proof make. There's still a chance he's just some lying ghost, and not the guy you dated last year._

The intuitive part of her mind fought back. _LOOK AT ALL THESE PHOTOS THOUGH. That is_ definitely _Danny Fenton._

Granted, she'd never seen that particular self confident smirk from the first image cross the usually rather reserved and elusive boy's face before, but the other pictures, the ones she'd pulled down afterwards and colored in, the ones she'd brought up on her computer and recolored in GIMP, they all told the same story: that was definitely Danny Fenton, with a look of annoyance she'd seen uncountable times on the real Fenton as he fled the hunter ghost, Danny Fenton looking scared as he faced off against the Fright Knight, Danny Fenton floating and laughing with that bold insignia on his chest in a surprise candid shot, Danny Fenton glaring as he shot an ectoblast at the Box Ghost.

Danny Fenton strung up in her containment unit last night.

Her thoughts were in such turmoil that she didn't bother trying to fake being asleep when her father checked on her as part of his post shift routine.

"Valerie! What are you doing up?" he asked as he rapped gently on the door and stepped into the room. "Is everything alright? I thought you said you worked at four today."

Valerie turned away from the grainy surveillance still she'd been working on recoloring, just in time to hear a crinkle of paper as he stepped on a stray print out. The blood seemed to rush out of her head as she saw him lean down and pick up the paper, yet another image of Danny Phantom recolored and looking like Danny Fenton.

"What's this - is this?" He looked up at his daughter, confusion warring with shock on his face. "Valerie, what is going on here?"

"Dad, I." What was she supposed to say? He already knew about the ghost hunting, for all he disapproved of it. Who would it hurt to tell him the frankly unbelievable information she'd learned last night? She looked back at the half finished image on the computer, Danny still having white sideburns, his eyes still green. "I think I found out something important last night." She paused, reconsidered. "Actually, I know I found out something important last night."

Standing and ignoring his sputtered "What?" Valerie activated her suit and plugged a USB drive into its wrist unit, downloading the previous evening's data. She usually tried to do a data dump every time she used the suit, but last night had been rather overwhelming, and she'd forgotten about it in the haze of confused thought following Vlad's rather startling unintentional reveal. When the unit beeped, she pulled out the drive and plugged it into her computer, opening up the video feed and scrolling forward to the time stamp she was looking for, then leaned back and let it play, Damon coming up to watch over her shoulder as the grainy footage showed a dark haired girl disappear into a run down building and the camera follow.

"Valerie! Did you really go into a clearly marked condemned building?" Damon exclaimed.

Valerie shushed him. "Keep watching. This is one of the important parts." On the screen, the girl turns, an alarmed look on her face as the building starts to crumble, then in a flash, she isn't a girl anymore, but a ghost, and rushing at the camera, her terrible eyes lit with desperation the last thing the camera shows clearly until it stabilizes and refocuses on the ghost, glowing in the alley the video started from. Valerie paused the video and turned to look at her father.

His face was slack with shock as he leaned back. "Did that girl . . . is she a ghost or a girl?"

"According to Phantom, she's both."

"According to Ph- You spoke to Phantom?" He looked back down at the print out now crumpled in his hand. "Is he . . . like that girl?"

Valerie could see the same war in his eyes that she'd been fighting all night long. Damon may have only met Danny a few times in either of his forms, but it didn't take knowing the boy to see the resemblance when Phantom's hair was blackened. "I'm pretty sure." She turned back to her computer, speeding forward for the next time stamp. "There's more though."

Damon and she both took deep breaths as she restarted the video, now showing Vlad's utterly trashed laboratory. "The mayor?" he stuttered. "And is that Maddie Fenton? Some kind of ghost of Maddie Fenton?"

"Pretty sure it's some creepy hologram or something," Valerie answered absently. "It didn't set off my gear at all. Now watch." She focused intently on Vlad, rage rekindling in her gut as those black rings (so different from Dani's! And yet so similar) kindled around the mayor as he floated up two feet from the floor and transformed into the Wisconsin Ghost.

Behind her Damon stumbled back and sat heavily on her bed. "What the hell was that? Valerie? What was that?"

Valerie didn't answer, just rewound the video and watched it again, not even noticing that she'd started to growl until the firm weight of her father's hand settled on her shoulder.

"Valerie, calm down. We can't do anything about this until we fully understand what's going on." She jerked her shoulder out from under his grasp, craning her neck to glare up at him. His eyes were glued to the screen, where the mayor transformed again, not even seeming to notice his daughter's ire shifting focus. He leaned forward, taking the mouse from her and rewinding the footage again, going further back, unpausing to watch the fight against Vlad. "Man, those two really hate that guy," he said as on the screen Danielle unleashed an impressive array of ecto attacks against Vlad.

"Well, he was trying to melt the girl Danny down," Valerie muttered. "I think it worked too, but then she got better? Fucking ghosts."

"Language, Valerie," Damon said. He rewound the footage again, starting it again at the point where Phantom and Valerie break into the mansion. Watching intently, he paused the video at the point where Phantom was knocked out of the fight. "Do you see that?" he asked, pointing at a blurred and out of focus part of the shot behind a glowering Vlad and clicking play again.

Valerie leaned forward and squinted, seeing the bright flash under the collapsed book case, then felt all the breath leak out of her in a gasp. "It's Fenton."

Her father arched an eyebrow at her and gestured to the scattered photos and print outs littering the floor around her desk. "I thought you already knew that."

"Well, I did," she groused. "This is just incontrovertible proof."

"Glad to see you're putting my word of the day calendar to good use," he quipped. "Incontrovertible. Anyway." He tapped the screen. "We'll have to talk to him if we want to figure any of this out. Preferably the girl too but judging by the way she flies away at the end there she's long gone."

"Talk to him. Daddy, he's been lying to me for months!" Valerie threw her hands up, finally getting to the crux of what had caused her sleepless night. "Danny's known exactly who I am for _months_ and never said anything! He's! He's _lied_ to me! _While we were dating!_ And you want me to talk to him?"

"That's exactly what I want you to do," Damon said calmly. "We can both guess why he'd keep something like this a secret. Really, Valerie, think about it. I know you hunt him far more than you do any other ghost, and I know you still want to get back at him for what happened with Axion and that dog." He sighed. "That wasn't an easy thing for either of us, and I'm not particularly enamored with talking to Phantom about this either, but we obviously can't go to the mayor, and the only other one with answers is going to be him."

Valerie glared at her motivation wall. "Maybe I can capture some other ghost and beat the answers out of it," she suggested. "The Box Ghost isn't hard to catch."

"The Box Ghost also probably won't know how those three became . . . those three, Valerie." Damon sighed and rubbed his head tiredly. "Phantom . . . Danny is our best bet, Sweetie. We can't do anything about the mayor being a ghost- half ghost - whatever, we can't even know if we _should_ do anything about any of this until we know more."

"What's all this 'we' stuff? I'm the ghost hunter here!" Valerie said half heartedly.

Damon just sighed. "Sweetie, you may be the ghost hunter but there's no facing this alone now that you've told me." He smirked, looking as tired as she felt. "If you really wanted to deal with this yourself, you never would have."

He stood up, brushing his pants off. She stood too, and deactivated her suit. "I . . . guess I could talk to him," she muttered. "I don't know how to start, though."

He ruffled her hair, ignoring her automatic protest. "You'll figure out what to say when the time comes. For now why don't you sleep on it? You look like you've been up all night, and after what you showed me I don't blame you. It's still early enough for you to get a good seven hours of sleep in before you have to be up for work, though, so I mean it when I say go to bed, Valerie." He started toward the door. "It may be summer vacation but that doesn't mean I want you sleeping all day everyday, though, so this better be a one time thing."

"Yeah, yeah," she said, but she couldn't keep the relieved smile from her face as he shut the door behind him. It was actually kind of nice, having her dad in on her ghost hunting secret. Really, pretty nice.


	3. Chapter 3

Getting to sleep was hard that morning. Paying attention during work was worse. By the time her shift ended at nine that night, Valerie's nerves were stretched to the breaking point trying to puzzle out what to say to Danny, and what to do if he showed up at the Nasty Burger as he and his friends did regularly.

She counted it a blessing that the only member of that particular group who showed was Tucker. Valerie was pretty sure the entire planet would collapse into a black hole if Tucker ever missed a day of eating at the Nasty Burger, though it was rare to see him without Sam and Danny in tow.

Whatever the reason for their absence, Valerie was glad; she had a hard enough time restraining the urge to jump over the counter and slam Tucker against a wall to begin her interrogation right in the middle of the restaurant. If Danny had showed, she would probably be out a job. Management tended to frown on employees assaulting the patrons, after all.

Valerie was certain those three were in cahoots (another vocab word! Her father would be so proud). They had to know his secret, with how close those three were. The way Sam and Tucker constantly covered for Danny's mysterious disappearances had been notable even before Valerie had sussed out his secret. Now it was just plain obvious, a flashing neon sign so bright she wondered that she had never pieced it together before, why it seemed that no one had ever pieced it together before, except the ghosts.

Knowing Danny's secret even started to cast other aspects of the two friends in a new light. They probably knew iher/i secret too, which certainly explained their overt hostility toward her during her brief flirtation with dating him. She'd hate to imagine what they'd do if she just went up and started calling him Phantom.

Valerie slumped against the brick wall behind the Nasty Burger, letting all the tension from the day drain out of her before heading home. Maybe it would be best to just approach Danny when he was Phantom: she really didn't want to approach him with his honor guard in attendance and they were far less likely to be around then, if past encounters with the Ghost Boy were any indication.

Being three hundred feet above the city streets made having them around a little difficult, really

Yeah, maybe she'd try to wait and just hunt him down as Phantom. Keeping her temper when talking to him might be a problem, though, given how she was having a hard time keeping it now just thinking about him.

Glancing around quickly, Valerie stepped away from the wall. Confirming that the alley was clear of any witnesses, she activated her suit and kicked on her jet board. Flying, she'd have enough time to get back to the apartment before her father left for his overnight shift, barring any unexpected ghost encounters. Seeing her dad off to work was a tradition, a comforting reminder of the time before she'd lost everything and had so many time consuming responsibilities thrust upon her. It was a reminder of when she could see him off to work every day instead of just on those rare occasions when she was free from work.

She didn't know whether to be frustrated or happy that her alarm went off while she crossed over the park, alerting her to the very familiar signature of Phantom, as well as a second, unfamiliar signature. With a sigh, she altered her flight path. Her father would understand.

In the center of the park, where the trees were the most dense, she found him. He was speaking to another ghost. She tagged it "Big Wolf Guy" on her suit's internal database, then went in for a landing, going for silent and stealthy this time. Her target was Phantom, and Big Wolf Guy looked tough.

She didn't feel like dealing with two targets right now. Sleep deprived, tired after a five hour shift, dealing with a Saturday night dinner rush? Yeah, not dealing with two ghosts right now.

She landed far enough away that they probably didn't hear her, if their lack of movement on her radar was any indication, but close enough that it was a short crawl through the bushes to get within earshot of the ghosts.

" . . .tiel vi ripozu gvatanto por ŝi?" Phantom was saying in some weird language.

Do ghosts have their own language? Valerie put that on the back burner as the Big Wolf Guy nodded. "Kompreneble mia frato. Ajna familio de via estas familio mia," he said, before one large hand extended and impossibly sharp and long claws shot out the tips of his fingers.

Valerie jerked back reflexively, while noting that Phantom didn't seem alarmed at all. The wolf man slashed them down, the claws seeming to catch on the air itself and ripping open a hole in reality. This time Valerie couldn't suppress the gasp, easily recognizing the ghastly green swirl of the Ghost Zone through the hole in reality the ghost had made.

Unfortunately the Big Wolf Guy heard her, and before she could even get into a defensive position, the ghost had bounded across the small clearing to her hiding place, snatching her up by her neck, fortunately with the paw not currently sporting foot long claws, and slammed her against the nearest tree. Valerie felt all the breath leave her in a gasping weaze.

"Malamiko!" the ghost snarled, the still extended claws of his other hand hovering threateningly over Valerie's head. "Ĉu mi finos ilin, mia frato?" She froze in panic. Never had a ghost managed to actually pin her this way.

"No! No!" Phantom shouted. "Don't hurt her!" He was there suddenly, too, hanging off Big Wolf Guy's arm. "Ah, ah, ne vundi? Mi manipuli ŝin." Phantom, the panic on his face so painfully familiar, so identical to what he'd shown last night when Dani was in danger, said, a pleading note in his voice. "Vi trovos mian kuzon, protekti kuzo, jes?" As the ghost turned to look at him, he added, "Bonvolu?"

Big Wolf Man turned back to her, muzzle curled in clear disgust, and then dropped her abruptly. Valerie, head still reeling, stared up as he nodded. "Fajna. Sed mi mortigos ĉi tiu se ĝi doloras vin, frato."

With that, he turned and ran with that same animalistic pounce to the portal he'd torn open, and disappeared into it. Valerie sat, stunned, and watched as reality healed itself behind the monster. Phantom, she noted, watched too, before turning to look at her, the anxiety in his face not fading even a little bit. He didn't move from where he hovered above the grass, but he didn't seem willing to start a conversation, either.

"What. What the hell was that?" she gasped out once she was able to calm her heaving breath.

"That was Wulf," he answered simply. "He's a little protective, but he's a pretty good guy if you get to know him." He cocked his head, studying her. "So, you here to continue the hunt? It is the next time you see me." He smiled, strained.

She glared up at him, wondering why he hadn't flown away when he had the chance. All the words she'd planned out flipping burgers and stuffing fries into cartons had fled her, though, and she wasn't sure what to say.

He seemed to wither a bit, under her glare. "He didn't actually hurt you, did he?"

"No," Valerie croaked. She shuffled her way into a standing position, leaning against the tree Wulf had slammed her into. "His name is Wulf? Seriously?" she asked, in lieu of anything important that she wanted to ask, but now, found she couldn't find the words for.

"Yeah." Danny grinned, and oh, that look was so familiar, now that she could see him in Phantom. That grin, shy and bashful and sharing the joke. "Sometimes ghosts aren't the most creative." He gave a nervous chuckle, and floated backwards a bit as she regained her feet.

Valerie felt something in her heart crack. "A little bit like you, huh?" she muttered.

"Huh?" he cocked his head, and that too was familiar. Everything about him was familiar and so obvious and she felt so blind, to have gotten to know Danny during those two precious weeks they dated as well as she had and still not recognize him in the entity in front of her.

"Danny Phantom? Danny Fenton?" she said, and watched as his face paled and he floated backwards more, confusion melting into alarm. "Really not that creative, once you realize the truth."

"Ahh, ahh," he stuttered, alarm slipping quickly into panic mode. "What? That's crazy, I-"

"You already told me Dani's both your cousin, and a half ghost," she interrupted, suddenly tired. "Just. Stop, Danny."

He stared at her, losing altitude. She rolled her eyes as he bounced gently into the grass, and retracted her suit. "Come on, Danny. I know. And we need to talk."

He swallowed heavy, then sighed. "How?"

"Change back, first," she said.

"But you already-"

"Please." She wasn't sure if it would be easier if he were Fenton instead of Phantom, but she needed to see this, settle it in her head for good that he was indeed both.

Phantom sighed, looking at the grass at her feet. Then, a white ring appeared around his middle, splitting and sliding over him, leaving Danny Fenton sitting in the grass in front of her.

Valerie felt the strength leaving her legs. This was it. Proof positive. She collapsed inelegantly into the grass in front of him, crossing her legs in front of her, careless of the grass stains she was getting on her uniform pants. She studied him, watching him study her back, bright blue eyes curious and cautious at the same time. She remembered back to every time she'd touched him, both Fenton and Phantom. On the ferris wheel during one of their (wonderful, enchanting) dates, when she'd hung onto his arm, he'd radiated a comforting warmth. Handcuffed to him during that (horrible, exhilarating) trip to the Ghost Zone courtesy of Skulker, he'd been freezing, like standing in an industrial cooler under the vents, and every time since that ghostly cold had been worse and worse. Despite knowing the truth of it, now, absolutely, she still couldn't wrap her head around it.

"So what is this, then?" she asked, finally. "You, me, this whole. Thing. Why?" She felt her heart falter under his gaze, and gestured a little wildly. "Why?"

Danny blinked and leaned back. "Why what?"

He sounded genuinely confused, and somehow that ignited the rage in her heart. "Why what?" she shouted. "Why are you a ghost? Why did you ruin my life? Why did you date me, when you knew who I was? What is going on with your cousin, and Vlad, and why did you destroy Axion Labs? Twice? Why everything, Danny! Take your pick!" She'd surged forwards onto her knees at some point. She came back to herself with her face uncomfortably close to Danny's, her hand gripping his shoulders. She felt, humiliatingly, her eyes burning with tears, her whole face feeling hot and heavy with her rage.

His hand reached up, brushed her cheek where an angry tear had slipped out. His face was shocked, wide eyed but still, somehow, understanding. His hand was cool against the flush of her cheek, but not inhumanly so. "I'm sorry," he said, his voice sounding choked.

"Sorry," she echoed. "Sorry doesn't- No!" She stuttered to a stop, fists clenching in the fabric of his t-shirt. She flattened them out and gave his shoulders a shove. He swayed back a little, staring still. "Sorr-"

Her voice was muffled as he abruptly leaned forward and engulfed her into a hug. Her arms were caught between them, hands balled up and pressed against his chest. "I'm sorry," he repeated, his voice muffled from where it was buried in the crook of her shoulder. "About your dad, and, all that stuff. Everything." She felt a sigh shudder through him, and his arms loosened. She could pull away now, easily, but instead, her hands seemed to snake their way around his waist on their own, and she leaned her cheek against his shoulder, and pulled him closer.

Despite herself, she still missed him, damn it.

There were so many things she still had to say, but this. This was good. This was where she wanted to be.

* * *

 **A/N:** _WHY DOES FFN HATE ME? THIS IS LITERALLY THE THIRD TIME IVE TRIED TO POST THIS? anyway, that's all for now, haha. if you check my ao3 where this was first posted (under the same username) you'll note that it was like three years between first publishing and last upd8, which was because it was also 3 years between up8s. so don't hold your breath for more I guess, is what I'm saying._


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